96 THE FIRST FLUTTERINGS OF THE WING. 
sought in it the wing, and found only a hideous membranous skin, 
which nevertheless performs a wing’s function : 
“Tam a bird; see you my wings ?”” 
Yes; but even the wing does not make the bird. 
Place yourself towards the centre of the museum, and close to 
the clock. There you perceive, on your left, the first rudiment 
of the wing in the penguin of the southern pole, and its brother, 
the Arctic auk, one degree more developed ; scaly winglets, whose 
glittering feathers rather recall the fish than the bird. On land 
the creature is feeble; but while earth is difficult for it, air is 
nnpossible. Do not complain too warmly. Its prescient mother 
destines it for the Polar Seas, where it will only need to paddle. 
She clothes it carefully in a fine coat of fat and an impenetrable 
covering. She will have it warm among the icebergs. Which is the 
better means? It seems as if she had hesitated, had wavered. By 
the side of the booby we see with surprise an essay at quite another 
